it is very much a monastic community. x the congregation of the elect must pledge himself to live according to the rule of theo community, to love all the children of light, and to hate all the children of darkness." >> the essenes are what we might best call an apocalyptic sect of judaism. an apocalyptic sect is one that? thinks of itself as, first of all, the true form of the religion. yt >> by apocalyptic expectation, i mean that some group has a... an apocalupsis in greek-- a revelation that god is going to finally solve the problem of injustice, unrighteousness, evil in the world, by totally eradicating the evil. that's the terrible price of apocalypse; there's going to be %gzm totally eradicating evil-- and we, the good, whoever we are, are going to live with god, be it heaven on earth, or earth in heaven, forever, in justice and holiness and righteousness. >> among the dead sea scrolls, we hear not of just one messiah, but at least two messiahs. some of their writings talk about a messiah of aaron, a priestly figure who will come to restore the temple at jerusalem to its proper puri